During the dramatic flyby of Enceladus, a prime target for future exploration in search of habitable environments beyond our home planet, the probe passed about 49 kilometres above the moon’s south polar region.

“Cassini’s stunning images are providing us a quick look at Enceladus from this ultra-close flyby, but some of the most exciting science is yet to come,” said Linda Spilker, the mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

These analyses, likely to take several weeks, should provide important insights about the composition of the global ocean beneath Enceladus’ surface and any hydrothermal activity occurring on the ocean floor.

The potential for such activity in this small ocean world has made Enceladus a prime target for future exploration in search of habitable environments in the solar system beyond Earth, NASA said.